The Sixties

The world of children’s books loves a ‘golden age’ and so do I. According to various experts there have been at least three, with most agreeing on the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century (from Alice to Pooh) as the first. Critics including Imogen Russell Williams and Amanda Craig have said we are living through another one (from Harry Potter to Rebel Girls).

John Burningham’s Borka

I’d argue that the period between the early sixties and the early eighties was the real Golden Age of children’s literature (from Charlie to the BFG – other authors are available, please ask).

Charles Keeping for Alan Garner’s Elidor

By the time I’d learned to read it was pretty much over. Aside from the latest Roald Dahl or Diana Wynne Jones, the children’s books I grew up with had mostly been created before I was born. One of the pleasures of writing this blog has been to dig deeper into this glorious period, discovering the hidden treasures that I missed.

Tove Jansson’s Moominpappa at Sea

To make the case for these golden years I’m going to divide them into two. Beginning with a list from the 1960s, a decade of experimentation in picture books, blockbuster authors and the beginnings of YA.

Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea

Were the 1960s the greatest decade in children’s literature? Cast your eye over this list and decide. At this stage it is not fixed – so I’d love to hear your selections of brilliant picture books, MG and YA. It would be great to find some more titles from outside the UK and US, and more diverse stories too.

16 thoughts on “The Sixties”

I learned to read by the very early 60s, and read and read and read…. When I ran out of ‘children’s books’ I raided my parents’ bookcases, but mostly I read Puffins (and later Peacocks). You might be interested in my very recent blog about my childhood reading, https://cathannabel.blog/2018/09/09/ten-books/. I don’t know about picture books though – most of those on your list are ones I remember reading to younger siblings and then to my own children, rather than reading them myself.

An excellent list, which I’m still absorbing, and including a large number of titles I remember first time round! But . . . no Rosemary Sutcliff? Or William Mayne, Henry Treece, Geoffrey Trease? Still, good to see Joan Aiken represented (unmentioned in Roger Lancelyn Green’s Tellers of Tales (1969 edition) and Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, 50 years old this year. And let us not forget Jane Pilgrim’s Blackberry Farm picture books from the early 60s or David McKee’s Elmer in 1968.

This is a real trip down memory lane Jake! Thank you!
I would also add Gumdrop (the first book was published in 1966), The Berenstain Bears (first published in 1962) and The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark published in 1968.

What a great list! When I was growing up (and we had very little money) most of the children’s books my family bought for me were from jumble sales, and included a lot of the books on this list and other 60s / 70s classics.

I fell in love with “Harry by the Sea” by Margaret Bloy Graham and Gene Zion as a kid, and was surprised to find that it was published ten years after the first “Harry” book (I guess even back then publishing was a fairly slow process). I always secretly wished the entire “Harry” stories would be picked up by a publisher for plush reprints of the entire series (sadly it seems only 3 are in print any more, though you can still get hold of “Harry and the Lady Next Door” if you know where to look – a book that practically invented the ‘middle grade chapter’ format that gets celebrated so widely today.

Awesome read Jake, really enjoyed this and it brought back a lot of happy memories.

Glad you enjoyed it. I had no idea there were more Harry books – I love the first one. Interesting what you say about chapter books – it’s part of the I can Read Series, which also includes work by Sendak and Arnold Lobel. Quite a pedigree for an educational series.

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it has needs a lot of research which explains why I come across your contributions at a rather late stage, but better late than never.
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